Traveling on Palindrome Day 01022010

(A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction.)
We are headed back to Cairo to escape winter once again.  And none too soon.  Terry spent Friday night with his Dungeons and Dragons friends in a northern Twin Cities suburb.  The temperature registered a crisp –20 on his car thermometer when he left for home.  It had warmed to a pleasant –11 as he pulled into our driveway.

One of Linda’s Christmas presents was a set of vacuum bags from Terry for compressing travel clothes (As Seen on TV!)  Terry helped us pack and with this technological assist Linda was able to get a relatively small suitcase well up over sixty pounds.  Compressing the clothing left lots of room for silverware, magazines and assorted other items not readily obtained at our local Carrefour store.

The first leg of the trip was uneventful and I am writing this post at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.  There are a few changes at the airport.  Not the least of which is an nine hour wait for our connection to Cairo.  It used to be about five hours.  But this spares us a connection in New York which usually involves changing airports as well as planes.

Other changes here include the magical disappearance of the “smoking chamber” on the second level near the Meditation Center. 

Smokers will now have to find the smoking section of the Amsterdam Cafe.  When we visited I immediately noticed a Musgo Gasoline pump placed outside the entrance to the cafe. 

“Musgo - Michigan’s Mile Maker” it says on the globe.  If I add this to my Conoco and Magnolia Petroleum station photos taken earlier this year perhaps I can start a pump page.  The nice thing about collecting digital images is they take up so little space in the house.

Another change at Schiphol is the replacement of the Northwest Airline red tails with the new Delta tails.  It is sad to see that old tradition pass.  

 

And of course, Angelique who previously provided such wonderful customer service was indeed replaced by an automated facility at the KPM business travel center.  I hope she found a good job.  (See previous post here.)  

But wait!  What’s this?  The smoking chamber wasn’t removed, just moved.  Here it is right by the KPM business center.  Judging from the smaller number of folks inside, I’m not the only person to have trouble finding it. 

And another of Tom’s travel tips.  If you need an outlet for your laptop at Schiphol, look on the backside of the pillar right behind Ronald McDonald.  Second level, across from the KPM business center.